Eclectic handmade jewelry often from recycled and unusual items with some personal rambling thrown in. Please visit my Etsy Store at TracyBell.etsy.com
If you see something you would like to purchase on this blog please contact me @ Beadbug at usa dot com

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Friday, June 29, 2012

Tool Review

I got together this week with some other creative souls and it never fails to amaze me how much more energy a group has. Bouncing ideas off others is one of the best ways to bring out my creativity, it seems like I just think clearer, stuff that I would never think of on my own just flows out of my mouth and hands.

Chris Fisher's Tracy Bell's Deb Harlan's
These are the riveting projects we made on Wednesday.

The photo above is a project we used to see how many different ways we could use our new riveting/eyelet tool. Here is a link to some videos on how the tool works http://www.youtube.com/user/CraftedFindings I think the tool is amazing, I got the long reach version in the 3/32 size. Rivets and eyelets will take seconds to place and if your like me and don't like the mechanical look you can do a bit of hammering on the rivet heads for a more rustic look.

A great photo of Chris's Finished Pendant

The hearts on this project stand up about 1/8" off the piece. We also cut our own tube and used it to eyelet the beads on since we needed longer tube than was supplied in the sample kit. The rivets for this are expensive at 13 cents each so we are looking for a much cheaper version, it's out there so when I find them I will let ya know where to get them.

3/32 long reach rivet and eyelet setting tool

This is a montage of ink on copper samples we made on Tuesday.

We used some inks on copper and now need to wear our pieces to see how well they take the wear and tear of regular use. I don't like to sell anything until I know it's fool proof. I am a very good fool to try it out on :)

Shell casings from Carl, I am going to work on removing the casings today.

I have a bunch of ideas for these shell casings so don't worry if you have some your saving for me, I will take more! If you look back in my posts I had made a locket and they will be wonderful bezels.

A bit of liquid creativity :)

I thought I would end this post with a wonderful refreshing drink, these were made with fresh strawberries and mikes bottled margaritas yummo. Thanks Chris for this great drink idea.